Chapter 17: Dethbrush Forever
"So, how does it feel?"
We were sitting in the green room of the Foxhole concert venue, where soon enough we would be the first band to grace it's stage in front of an audience. We had just completed a soundcheck. Vixy Wilde was in the room with us.
"Well," I said as I relaxed on the soft couch, "to be fair I'm jizzing my pants over the concept of being the first band to open up this venue. Well, I'm not actually jizzing my pants but you get the point."
"Also," Nick said, "we;ve only done the sound check and it's already the best venue in the whole city."
"This place is fucking sick!" Judy said, "I stood all around the venue and the sound was killer. Also it's just big enough for moshing and yet still small enough to really feel intimate."
"This place is fucking amazeballs," Finnick said, "glad we can do our first headline here."
"And invite up some stage pouncers," Duke said.
"All in all," I said, "this venue is definitely gonna be a success."
As you could probably tell, this was the opening of the Foxhole venue and we were selected to be the first band to grace it's stage. The same day, we released our debut album, entitled Dynasty. It was receiving a good amount of streams, especially due to the lead single of May The Legends Prevail, written about our epic space battle. After a few singles had been released, we were put on a tour with melodic metalcore band Foxfang (my teenhood idols and my gateway to metal) which provided us with some of our first out-of-town shows (our very first show was a local opening spot for Otters Of Metal at the Bergen Inferno). Our music was well received, but we weren't that popular. Our genre was quite niche, I mean, you probably have never heard of "Deathened Melodic Power Metalcore" but that's the best way I can describe the band as a blend of all those subgenres with the occasional folk metal and black metal mixed in here and there. I was quite ready to hit that stage. Oh yes, it was also my 21st birthday.
"So," Nick said, "what are we gonna do after this?"
"Well," Judy said, "I was thinking we'd all get drunk and then go burn down a church."
"Ah hell yeah!" I replied excitedly, "happy birthday to me!"
We all smacked paws with each other.
"Also," Finnick said, "it looks like we're gonna be at that perfect level, just seeing how things are going."
"Ah I know what you mean," Duke said, "just big enough to headline shows and make money but just small enough for intimacy."
"That's the way I like it too," I replied.
"Also," Judy said, "I love what we did with the costumes and the stage names!"
Duke was wearing his funky costume and decided on the stage name of "Big Gooch". Finnick had a vampire costume and his stage name was "Fennecula". Judy dressed as a pirate under the name "Captain Dekewod". Nick dressed in his Robin Hood costume in which he gave the bottom of it some shreds and called himself simply "The Outlaw", while I dressed in a custom, capeless, heavy metal superhero outfit with white, black and orange, under the stage name of "Snowfire!" written with an exclamation point at the end.
"Well," Finnick said to Duke, "You came up with this!"
"I guess I did," Duke said, "to be fair I was slightly buzzed."
Soon, our four stage techs came back into the green room, including Dakota Wagley. They also consisted of a Lynx named Ashley Yukon, a Wolverine named Hugh Gluttonson, as well as a Moose named Palmer Dulap.
"Well," Dakota then said to us, "just a few minutes until you're on."
"Ah fuck yeah!" I replied excitedly.
"This is going to fucking rip!" Nick said.
"It will," said Ashley as she handed the instruments back, "from watching all your opening shows, they have been all killer no filler."
"And this time you're headlining," Hugh said.
"A full one hour set," Palmer said, "like a real headline show."
"Indeed," Judy said.
"Yeah, not one of those bands that thinks 40 minutes is good enough for a headliner," Finnick said.
"And eventually we'll be playing even longer," Duke said.
"Indeed," I said, "okay, everyone in."
We all huddled together.
"On the count of one, two, three, say it with me."
"DETHBRUSH IS FOREVER!"
We all cheered as we grabbed our instruments and waited to the side of the stage.
"Oh shit!" I said as my tail wagged excitedly, "we're about to do this."
"Ah yeah!" Nick said.
"Ready for the entrance?" Judy asked as we all nodded.
Our intro played over the speakers to the cheer of the sold-out audience. Duke was the first to walk onstage and took his place at the drumkit. Finnick then walked out and took a swig of rum. Judy walked out and stood on the riser at the front of the stage before jumping back down. Nick walked and tossed a few picks at the audience, his tail also wagging with excitement. Finally, I came out onstage and badassly waved my arm over the audience.
"WHAT THE FUCK IS UP ZOOTOPIA!" I screamed into the microphone as the rest of the crowd cheered, "WHO IS READY TO GO ABSOLUTELY FUCKSHIT!"
Duke then started his drum solo intro as we began to rage into album opener "Take The Stage". A mosh pit immediately erupted that engulfed the whole room. The venue was indeed just large enough for it. I noticed Lupe Wolfard right at front row and I gave them high paws during the show. Skye Renarde and Jack Savage were both raging in the pit. Blizzard continuously came up to stage-pounce on the audience (this was one of his last chances to do it in Tundratown, because soon enough he'd be moving to Ermineton). Chief Bogo and Clawhauser were in the pit as well, as Clawhauser converted Bogo to a real metalhead. All of the Ottertons were there, and even their pups were moshing in the pit. Tarja and Winter were both hanging out in the back, being in their 60s after all. Tod Wilde did a sick job at the sound booth while Maple Nutley was all around the venue taking photographs. I also recognized some of the other mammals there, such as the minigun Snow Leopard we had seen during the battle and Valencia Lopez also came to the front row, standing right next to Chuck Clifton and Rachel Shrewsbury-Bipperson. Flash was even forming the slowest circle pit ever.
"IT'S THE TUNDRATOWN WAY!" I sang during our song "Dynasty" which was all about the metal scene. I continuously loped around the stage and jumped off of the risers and the drum kit. I even let the audience play with my floofy tail. Judy was jumping everywhere and standing on the risers during the guitar solos. Nick, who also did guitar solos, was absolutely raging. Both of their secondary vocals also sounded sick. Finnick was also having the time of his life, headbanging intensely during each breakdown and providing some deep death growls here and there to supplement my own uncleans. Duke absolutely annihilated his drum kit and broke a bunch of sticks, sounding excellent as he did his spoken word portions.
We continued through our one-hour set where we played the entire album but not in full. We also had some excellent stage banter that got the whole room to laugh, and all the band members joined in. We had a circle pit and a wall of death. We even played a "What Does The Fox Say" cover that featured a guitar solo and two breakdowns. I even got out a confetti launcher during our song "Smash The Skies".
Eventually, we went back to the dressing room before our encore. I took a swig of water while Nick marked his territory. We could hear the crowd chanting our band's name before we came back on.
We went right into "Savage City" as we retook the stage. Finnick was standing in the vertical fog machines to make himself look evil while I walked through the crowd and even went into the pit. This was fucking epic.
"AL-FUCKING-RIGHT TUNDRATOWN!" I screamed into my microphone during a song break, "do you know who we are!"
"DETHBRUSH!" they all replied.
"Well," I said, "how about we all introduce ourselves. Kick it off goocher!"
"Duke 'Big Gooch' Weaselton on the drums!"
"Finnick 'Fennecula' Honeycutt on the bass!"
"Judy 'Captain Dekewod' Hopps on guitar!"
"Nick 'Outlaw' WIlde on guitar!"
"Snowy 'Snowfire!' Broden on vocals!"
The hundred mammals in the room let out a cheer.
"So," I said, "ARE YOU READY FOR ONE MORE FUCKING SONG!"
The crowd cheered.
"Alright," I said, "this one is called MAY THE LEGENDS PREVAIL!"
The crowd cheered extremely loud as Nick and Judy played the opening riff to it. The mosh pit now encapsulated the whole room.
"An epic cosmic fight!" I sang, "of darkness and light! We will battle for what's right! May the legends prevail tonight!"
The crowd was absolutely wild as we continued our song, which had an epic 2-minute guitar solo and three breakdowns. Finally, we gave our song an explosive finale and took our bows. Duke threw sticks into the crowd. Finnick, Nick, and Judy all threw their picks, and I handed out the setlists.
"Woohoo!" I shouted as we went back to the green room and I jumped onto the couch, "holy shit that fucking ripped!"
"Oh hell yeah that was fucking awesome!" Nick said.
"This is much better than anything I've done in my life," Judy said, "whether it be police or carrot farming, being in a metal band triumphs all."
"I've been in a few bands in the past," Finnick said, "but none were as good as this."
"Plus they all loved our costumes," Duke said, "and I've never seen a crowd go this wild at all the shows I've been too."
Winter and Blizzard walked in.
"Holy fuck!" Blizzard said, "that's a foxonal record for me! Twenty-Seven stage pounces!"
"That may have been the best concert ever," Winter said.
"Well," I said, "we're working on a few other tours, mainly as an opener, but once we know the reception of the album we'll start working out a headline tour," I said, "hopefully we can get a date in Ermineton."
"That would be great!" Blizzard said.
"Alright," Winter said, "I'll leave you to your own now."
They left the room.
"So," Nick said, "ready for the free meet-and-greet!"
"Hell yeah!" Nick said.
We left the room and re-entered the main venue space (also I should mention that the lighting also kicked ass) before coming to the merch table. We gave some willing fan's our autographs and fist-bumped them as well. We also got many selfies with them.
"Hey," Judy said as we left the venue after the curfew, "wanna go get drunk and burn down a church!"
"Fuck to the yeah!" We all replied.
We grabbed liquor out of the tour van and drank a bunch of shots. Finnick then threw a molotov cocktail at the abandoned stave church and we partied as the church burned down.
"Hell yeah!" Duke replied, "this is the fucking life!"
We continued to listen to black metal, death metal, metalcore, and power metal as the night went on.
"Alright," Finnick said, "the two of us got to go now. But, we are just the next house to yours and only across the street from where we are now."
"Thank you for this," I said, "and remember, DETHBRUSH IS FOREVER!"
Judy Nick and I went back into our new three-mammal bedroom in our renovated house. Despite the lateness of the hour, I still could not sleep. All I could think was just one thing.
This was the best place ever.
The End
No animals or aliens were harmed during the making of this.